Stoke City 4 FC Thun 1: Kenwyne takes care of business

Stoke City 4 FC Thun 1 (Stoke win 5-1 on agg)

TONY PULIS may fear the Europa League will prove a burden to Stoke this season but his players are not listening.

Stoke will now face at least an extra six games after easing into the group stages with a routine victory over FC Thun.

And while the increased workload will stretch Pulis’s skeleton squad even further, few would bet against Stoke writing another great chapter into their recent history.

Not since 1974 have Stoke participated in Europe but this was their third victory in the competition and nobody will fancy their chances playing at this unforgiving venue.

The tie was effectively finished off in 13 minutes, with goals from Matthew Upson, Kenwyne Jones and Glenn Whelan setting up a canter for Pulis and his Potters.

Jones completed a stress-free evening with a header 18 minutes from time to give the scoreline an accurate reflection, before a late consolation from Andreas Wittwer.

Stoke's need for new recruits was evident in that they only had six substitutes on the bench

Pulis is expecting a frenetic final few days of the transfer window and the need for new recruits was evident in that they only had six substitutes named on the bench.

Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Craig Bellamy remain on the Stoke radar and Pulis desperately wants some business to be completed.

Though he has been reluctant to bemoan a lack of strength in depth, this was Stoke’s sixth game of the season already.

Pulis will surely now have a better bargaining hand to lure players to the Britannia Stadium.

This victory was as comfortable as he would have wanted. Without the suspended Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth, Stoke did lumber in the early stages against the Swiss league leaders but a wasteful header from Jones, sending a Jermaine Pennant cross wide, gave them the impetus they badly needed and the hosts were ahead in typically simple fashion.

Upson made his debut against Thun last weekend and marked his home debut with a bullet header, powering a Pennant corner past Dragan Djukic.

It was Upson’s first goal since England’s defeat to Germany in last year’s World Cup and he already appears another shrewd signing by Pulis.

FC Thun had lost all three of their previous European games against English clubs, twice against Arsenal in the Champions League and last week against Stoke, and did not give their 46 travelling fans any encouragement in a limp first-half display.

And their night was killed off for good when Jones dived to direct another exquisite Pennant centre into the corner on the half hour.

Stoke increased their lead eight minutes before the break after Whelan’s deflected shot from outside the area looped over defender Thomas Reinmann on the goalline.

The second half was almost a non-event as Pulis opted to make a raft of substitutions, with Thun barely producing a snarl of defiance. Tom Soares volleyed horribly wide while Dean Whitehead shot straight at Djukic from 20 yards. But Jones collected his second of the night from close range 18 minutes from time, from a Soares cross.

Thun did register a consolation through substitute Wittwer but Pulis cannot have envisaged such a simple evening.